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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Cutting the cord: Live TV

I've been a cord-cutter for nearly six years. I got a Roku and Apple TV in late 2010 and dropped cable in early 2011. Since then, I've streamed my TV content. But, if you've read this blog before, you probably know that. Unless you forgot. But now I've reminded you, so we're good to get to the point.

Well, in a minute. First, more backstory. Or information. Or something.

Once you drop cable, unless you put up an antenna, or don't really drop cable and get a cheap locals-only package, you can't watch any live TV. Services like Hulu let you watch stuff within hours of airing. Purchasing content from iTunes or Amazon or some such service does too. In fact, apart from live content like news/opinion programs and sports, just about everything you want to watch is available from Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, and the like. When I cut cable, I lost live sports and news/opinion shows, but nothing else.

For me, it was cheaper than paying for cable. It might be for you, and there are Websites that help you with that kind of research and decision. Rather than being rare behavior, cutting the cord, as it's called, is becoming more common. It's a new market for companies. So, what can they offer that Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon can't?

Live TV. For people that want to watch live sports -- me, for instance -- or people that can't wait a few hours to watch Game of Thrones, the live TV option has value. And more and more services are starting up. One of the first was Sling TV, which I've tried and like. There's PlayStation Vue, which I've tried, but don't like so much. And there's DirecTV Now, which I'm currently trying out.

The services are similar, but aren't exactly the same.

Sling TV

Sling TV, for instance, has two plans. Okay, three: the $20/month Orange plan, the $25/month Blue plan, and the $40/month all (combined Orange and Blue) plan. There are 25 channels that are in both plans:

A&E

AMC

AXS TV

BBC America

Bloomberg

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim

Cheddar

CNN

Comedy Central

El Ray

Fla Ma

Food

Galavision

HGTV

History

IFC

Lifetime

Local Now

Maker

Newsy

Polaris

TBS

TNT

Travel

Viceland

Five are unique to Orange:

Disney

ESPN

ESPN 2

ESPN 3

Freeform

Blue offers 19 channels that Orange doesn't have:

BET

Bravo

Fox

Fox Sports Networks

FS1

FS2

FX

FXX

Nat Geo Wild

National Georgraphic

NBC

NBCSN

NFL Network

SyFy

Tru TV

USA

Bottom line is, Blue plan gets you all of their basic channels apart from those five mentioned. Blue is probably the better deal. Unless you want ESPN. If ESPN is all you're after, Orange is the way to go. The better bargain depends on what's important to you.

There are also add-on services available with more sports, movie channels (HBO, Cinemax, STARZ, TCM, and others), news (BBC, HLN, and more), kids (Boomerang, NickToons, etc), and such.

What I like about Sling TV is that you can watch it away from home. I can take my iPad or other supported device with me and watch the content from another location. Not all services work that way.

PlayStation Vue

I'm talking about PlayStation Vue. I've tried it, but didn't keep it around because, while the content it offers is greater than Sling TV, you can't watch it away from home. You must be in the same general area, with the same IP address, as when you registered. If your ISP doesn't keep the same IP address for you (some don't) then it's a problem. For me, though, I want to watch my TV away from home. Like I could do if I had Comcast cable. But, PlayStation Vue doesn't allow that.

If that's not a problem, it's a good service. They have four basic plans, each build on the one before it.

Access ($30/month) includes 47 channels:

ABC

AMC

Animal Planet

BBC America

Bravo

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim

CNBC

CNN

Destination America

Discovery

Discovery Family

Disney

Disney Jr

Disney XD

DIY

E!

ESPN

ESPN 2

Esquire

Food

Fox

Fox Business

Fox News

Freeform

FS1

FS2

FX

FXX

HGTV

HLN

Investigation Discovery

MSNBC

National Georgraphic

NBC

NBCSN

OWN

Oxygen

Pop

Science

SyFy

TBS

TLC

TNT

Travel

Tru TV

USA

WE

For $5 more ($35/month) Core has those plus:

BE IN Sports

Big Ten Network

ESPNews

ESPNU

Fox Sports Networks

Golf

IFC

NBA TV

NFL Network

SEC Network

Sundance TV

TCM

Another $10 ($45/month) for Elite get you all those, plus:

American Heroes

BBC World News

Boomerang

Chiller

Cloo

CNBC World

Cooking

Discovery Life

EPIX

ESPN Deportes

Fox College Sports Atlantic

Fox College Sports Central

Fox College Sports Pacific

Fox Deportes

Fusion

FXM

Hi-Yah!

Impact

Machinima

MGM

Nat Geo Wild

One World Sports

Outside

Poker Central

Polaris

Sony

Sprout

Universal

Velocity

And, for another $10, ($55/month) the Ultra plans adds

HBO

Showtime

Like I said, a lot of content for the price. There are also additional add-ons for PlayStation Vue:

HBO

Showtime

Cinemax

Machinima

Fox Soccer Plus

Epix Hits

Polaris

DIRECTV NOW

The newest entry is the one I'm trying now: DIRECTV NOW. It offers four plans also, beginning with the $35/month Live A Little plan:

A&E

ABC

AMC

Animal Planet

Audience

AXS TV

Baby First

BBC America

BET

Bloomberg

Bravo

C-SPAN

C-SPAN2

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim

CMT

CNBC

CNN

Comedy Central

Discovery

Disney

Disney Jr

Disney XD

E!

ESPN

ESPN 2

Food

Fox

Fox Business

Fox News

Freeform

FS1

FX

FXX

Galavision

Hallmark

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

HGTV

History

HLN

Investigation Discovery

Lifetime

MSNBC

MTV

MTV2

National Georgraphic

NBC

Nick Jr

Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite

RFD-TV

Spike

SyFy

TBS

TCM

TeenNick

Telemundo

TLC

TNT

Tru TV

TV Land

Univision

USA

Velocity

Viceland

WE

WeatherNation

The other plans build on this, except for the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. That's only available in the Live A Little Plan for some reason. Anyway, the $50/month Just Right plan (an extra $15) adds:

Big Ten Network

CNBC World

Comedy TV

Cooking

ESPNews

ESPNU

Fuse

Fusion

GSN

IFC

Justice Central

Lifetime Movie Network

MLB Network

NBCSN

Nicktoons

OWN

Science

SEC Network

Sundance TV

Travel

Uni Mas

Weather Channel

Another $10 ($60/month, but currently being offered at $35/month) gets you the Go Big plan, which has those plus:

American Heroes

BBC World News

Centric

Destination America

Discovery Family

Discovery Life

DIY

FM

FS2

FXM

FYI

Golf

Logo

MTV Classic

Nat Geo Wild

NBA TV

NBC Universo

NHL Network

Oxygen

Revolt

Sprout

Tennis

TV Guide

The largest, most expensive plan, at $70/month, Gotta Have It, adds:

Boomerang

Chiller

Cloo

El Ray

STARZ ENCORE Action

STARZ ENCORE Black

STARZ ENCORE Classic

STARZ ENCORE East

STARZ ENCORE Family

STARZ ENCORE Suspense

STARZ ENCORE West

STARZ ENCORE Westerns

Univision Deportes

All plans let you add, for $5 each, one or both premium services:

HBO

Cinemax

The best deal is the Go Big plan, the one I'm trying, since it offers a large package for the price of their cheapest package. As long as I keep it, I'm guaranteed that price. Don't know how long they'll run this offer.

Deals

There are various deals offered by the services, apart from the DIRECTV NOW pricing on their second-largest plan, for devices. These plans will run on smartphones and tablets, of course, but for standard TV watching, you probably want a device connected to your TV. The best of those are Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV (and Fire TV Stick), Roku (various versions), and Chromecast.

Sling TV offers an Apple TV for $89 (regular $150) when you pay for 3 months, which a good deal. They also offer a free Roku Stick ($50 retail) with a one-month pre-payment, also a good deal. You can also get half off a Roku Premiere Plus (regular $100) with a three-month pre-payment. That's a decent deal, but not a great deal.

DIRECTV NOW will give you a free Amazon Fire TV Stick ($40) with pre-paying a month service. That's a very good deal.

The best deal right now, though, is the one offered by DIRECTV NOW: Get a free Apple TV ($150 model) free with a three-month pre-payment. I pre-paid $105 (3 x $35) and they're shipping me an Apple TV. The catch is, they promise delivery within 2-3 weeks (although mine has shipped and will arrive less than a week into the subscription). If you don't already have a device to watch it on, you're screwed out of up to 2-3 weeks of streaming you paid for. Only, not really, since you are getting a $150 Apple TV and 3 months of service for $105. That's a bargain any way you look at it.

If you're shopping for an Apple TV anyway, and can wait 2-3 weeks (or 5 days, in my instance), this is the best deal ever.

Update

I don't have an update yet. I will later, after I've had a chance to watch the service for a time, and tried out the service. So, we'll see if I keep the service after the middle of March. Either way, I'll let you know my overall impression of the service.